WASHINGTON — When outgoing CEO William Flynn joined the company in March 2020, a direction for Amtrak that de-emphasized long distance trains and national network investment had already been established under Amtrak Board Chairman Anthony Coscia.
Stephen Gardner, hired by then-President and CEO Joseph Boardman, has been the primary confidant on strategy for two other short-term CEOs, Wick Moorman and Richard Anderson, who were brought in to replace Boardman in 2017. Since then, Gardner has assumed more responsibility on both the commercial and operations sides, and has been the common thread in management as chief executive titles and responsibilities above him changed [see “Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn to retire,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 15, 2021].
But the term of Coscia and every other board member has expired, and reform provisions of the recently-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act take direct aim at reorienting Amtrak priorities away from their current trajectory. Among the changes:
— Board of Directors composition is to include two members each from states representing the Northeast Corridor, state-supported service, and long-distance trains. They would still nominated by the U.S. President and confirmed by the Senate, but must be actively engaged with passenger rail and communities it serves, not political appointees who have only a limited knowledge of Amtrak’s product and needs of the traveling public and disabled community.
— Maximizing the benefits to rural areas with federal investment across the entire network, rather than focusing on minimizing costs as a primary corporate goal. Current management argues Northeast Corridor trains (at least in pre-pandemic times) have been at least operationally self-sufficient. Meanwhile, allocations of company-wide and route costs to long-distance trains have justified cuts to capacity and amenities for those services.
— A requirement to revise cost-allocation methodology, in conjunction with the State-Amtrak Intercity Passenger Rail Committee, to be more transparent. The methology, which is also used to calculate long-distance train expenses, has been a constant complaint of state operating authorities.
In 2018, a bipartisan group of senators representing Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico began to challenge Amtrak’s plan under Anderson to replace part the Southwest Chief with bus service rather than continue the Boardman-led effort to use locally sponsored federal grants to rehabilitate the route. The recent legislation’s directives have expanded calls for Amtrak to re-examine triweekly and discontinued routes, as well as onboard service in response to constituent complaints, in part because lawmakers continue to be unsatisfied with management’s current approach.
By installing Gardner now as CEO, the current board of directors can exert influence on future investment priorities just as Amtrak is poised to receive more money for infrastructure than it ever has before. Coscia is from New Jersey, where needs are significant.
Gardner’s knowledge can provide continuity regardless of who is nominated to the new board. The question is whether the new board will actively exert oversight on management to ensure it fulfills the intent of the legislation, which the current board has declined to do.
Nomination and confirmation of that new board shows no sign of moving swiftly as the Biden administration faces challenges, so Gardner is likely to have some time to show how he intends to comply with the spirit of the law’s prescriptive requirements.
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